Pope winds up Portugal visit with outdoor Mass

Pope Francis celebrated an open-air Mass before an estimated 1.5 million people on Sunday at a waterside park near Lisbon, wrapping up an international jamboree of Catholic youth.

The 86-year-old spent five days in Portugal, on his first foreign trip since undergoing hernia surgery in June.

During a press conference on his flight back to Rome, Francis said his stitches had been removed but he would have to wear a support belt for two or three months.

"My health is good!" he told journalists, adding that he had resumed a "normal life".

The crowd at the mass at the Parque Tejo on the eastern outskirts of the Portuguese capital, estimated at 1.5 million by the Vatican, had earlier waved national flags and cheered as the pontiff arrived.

Many of those attending had camped out overnight in sleeping bags or floor mats after attending a vigil there held by the pope.

"You are the hope of a different world," Francis said in his homily.

The leader of the world's 1.3 billion Roman Catholics also urged the pilgrims to pray for those who could not come "because of armed conflicts and wars".

"There are many of them in our world. In thinking of this continent, I feel great sorrow for beloved Ukraine, which continues to suffer greatly," he added to applause.

With little shade in the park, pilgrims protected themselves from the blazing sun with umbrellas or makeshift tents made from sheets.

"It's extraordinary to be able to be here to see our Pope Francis who has managed to gather people from the whole world," Pimentel Gomes, a 52-year-old priest from Brazil, told AFP as he sat for breakfast before the Mass.

'Unforgettable days' 

The pope, who now uses a wheelchair or walking stick to get around, addressed some 24,000 event volunteers on Sunday afternoon to thank them before flying home.

"You have made these unforgettable days possible," he said.

He spent nine nights in hospital after his hernia surgery, which itself came just weeks after he was hospitalized in April suffering breathing difficulties.

Charlotte Bordas, a 26-year-old from southwestern France, said she was moved to see the pope had made the trip despite his health problems.

"We see he's really tired, weakened, but he still took the time to come to see us, talk to us, and it is particularly touching for me to see him," she told AFP.

Francis arrived in Portugal on Wednesday for World Youth Day, a six-day international Catholic jamboree featuring festive, cultural and religious events.

It comes as Francis attempts to galvanize young Catholics at a time when secularism and priest pedophilia scandals cause some to abandon pews in Europe.

'Room for everybody' 

The pope met 13 victims of clerical abuse at the Holy See's diplomatic mission in Lisbon during his first day in Portugal.

He also met 15 youths from war-torn Ukraine, visited a community center in Lisbon's impoverished Serafina neighborhood and prayed at the shrine of Fatima north of the Portuguese capital.

In Fatima, he had been expected to talk about the war in Ukraine, but in the end, he did not. During his press conference on Sunday evening, he insisted "I prayed for peace" but did not want "publicity".

During his visit Francis stressed his call for inclusivity, telling the World Youth Day opening ceremony on Thursday that "in the Church, there is room for everyone".

He then led the crowd of half a million people in a chant of "todos, todos, todos" or "everyone, everyone, everyone" to press his point.

"It has been an extraordinary moment of joy, of energy, with remarkable speeches by the Holy Father," Portugal's Socialist Prime Minister Antonio Costa told public television RTP.

Francis received an enthusiastic welcome throughout his visit to the Catholic-majority country, with well-wishers lining the streets to see him go by.

World Youth Day, created in 1986 by John Paul II, is the largest Catholic gathering in the world and features a wide range of events, including concerts and prayer sessions.

This edition, initially scheduled for August 2022 but postponed because of the pandemic, is the fourth for Francis after Rio de Janeiro in 2013, Krakow in 2016 and Panama City in 2019.

At the end of Sunday's Mass, the pope announced that Seoul in South Korea would host the next edition in 2027.